Author: Fbiz
Radio Flyer Marks 100 Years of Wagon Production
14/07/2017
Radio Flyer is rolling its largest “little” red wagon into its hometown of Chicago in celebration of the company’s 100-year anniversary. Radio Flyer’s gargantuan wagon was the centerpiece for the company’s anniversary event Thursday in the city’s downtown area, the Chicago Tribune reported. The wagon was created 20 years ago for the brand’s 80th anniversary. …
Gaza’s Electricity Shortage at Crisis Level
14/07/2017
The electricity supply to Gaza’s 2 million residents has dropped to unprecedented lows, with blackouts lasting for more than 24 hours, the territory’s power distribution company said Thursday, prompting fears of a humanitarian and environmental crisis. The Palestinian enclave needs at least 400 megawatts of power a day, but only 70 megawatts were available as …
Venezuela Oil Exports to Cuba Drop, Energy Shortages Worsen
14/07/2017
Venezuela’s crude and fuel deliveries to Cuba have slid almost 13 percent in the first half this year, according to documents from state-run oil company PDVSA viewed by Reuters, threatening to worsen gasoline and power shortages in the communist-run island. Cuba’s government since 2016 has reduced fuel allocations 28 percent to most state-run companies, and …
McDonald’s Sees Its Future: Be More Convenient
13/07/2017
McDonald’s is hoping to make a difference in its future seven seconds at a time. The company that helped define fast food is making supersized efforts to reverse its fading popularity and catch up to a landscape that has evolved around it. That includes expanding delivery, digital ordering kiosks in restaurants, and rolling out …
Coal Mine Crackdown Dims Prospects for Mongolia’s Fortune Seekers
13/07/2017
Working 50 meters (164 feet) under ground with minimal air supply, Uuganbaatar is one of thousands of Mongolians trying to make a living digging for coal. Although the mining season does not begin until autumn, when the ground freezes and work is safer, the 31-year-old and his colleagues are seeking to gain a head start …
Britain Hails Spanish Investment as Sign of Confidence in Economy
13/07/2017
Spanish companies will commit millions of pounds of investment to Britain on Thursday, the British government said, as it seeks to limit the economic impact of leaving the European Union. The investment plans, which include building trains and trams in Britain, coincide with a three-day state visit to Britain by Spain’s King Felipe and Queen …
Zambia Emergency Declaration Divides Politics, Could Scare Investors
12/07/2017
Zambia’s parliament has imposed a 90-day state of emergency, after the president last week declared the need for one. The situation is likely to deepen the political crisis in the country, and analysts say it also could scare away much needed investors to the copper-dependent, landlocked nation. The president called for the state of emergency …
Iraq Plans to Offer New Exploration Rights for Oil, Gas
12/07/2017
Iraq says it will offer new oil and gas exploration rights as it looks to boost energy revenues to fund its war against the Islamic State group and shore up its finances amid low oil prices. Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said late Tuesday that his ministry plans to put nine border exploration blocks …
Yellen Words to be Parsed for Clues to Rates, Her Future
12/07/2017
When Janet Yellen delivers her testimony on the Federal Reserve’s semiannual report to Congress on Wednesday, investors may listen as much for clues to her own future – and the Fed’s – as they will to what she says about interest rate policy. The Fed chair is likely to repeat a message she has been …
Twitter Hires ex-Goldman Managing Director as CFO
12/07/2017
Twitter on Tuesday hired Ned Segal, senior vice president of finance at Intuit and a former managing director at Goldman Sachs Group, as its chief financial officer beginning in late August. Anthony Noto, who has been serving as Twitter’s CFO and chief operating officer since November, will remain at the company as COO, Twitter said …
Report: Financial Sector Not Using its Full Power to Fight Human Trafficking
12/07/2017
The global financial sector is not fully using tools it has at hand to help fight human trafficking, from reporting suspicious credit card activity to seizing assets, said a report released Tuesday by a United Nations think tank. The United Nations University (UNU) said financial tools were a powerful means to disrupt the flow of …
Report: Small Satellites Driving Space Industry Growth
12/07/2017
Small satellites used for observing conditions on the earth are the fastest growing segment of the $260.5 billion global satellite industry, the Satellite Industries Association said in an annual report released on Tuesday. Small satellites, some no bigger than a shoe box, generated an 11 percent jump in annual revenue for Earth imagery in 2016 …
Trial Begins in Japan for CEO of Failed Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox
11/07/2017
The former chief executive officer of the failed Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox pleaded not guilty to charges that he stole hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of the virtual currency. French-born Mark Karpeles appeared Tuesday in Tokyo District Court at the start of his trial on embezzlement and data manipulation charges. Prosecutors have accused the …
Trump to Nominate Quarles to Be Fed’s Top Banking Regulator
11/07/2017
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to nominate former Treasury official Randal Quarles to be the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, the White House said on Monday. If confirmed by the Senate, Quarles would be the first vice chair of supervision at the Fed, a role created after the 2008 financial crisis but never filled during …
US Expected to Scrap Visa Program for Entrepreneurs
11/07/2017
President Donald Trump’s administration is postponing and plans to drop a program to provide visas for foreign entrepreneurs who launch companies in the United States. The visa program, proposed last year by former President Barack Obama, was intended to give entrepreneurs who are not eligible for other types of visas permission to live in the …
China’s COSCO to Buy Orient Overseas for $6.3 Billion
10/07/2017
China’s biggest shipping company, state-owned COSCO Shipping Holdings Co., is creating the world’s No. 3 container shipping giant by acquiring rival Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. Shares in both companies surged Monday following the announcement of the $6.3 billion deal. A wave of consolidation has created huge competitors in a global shipping industry that is struggling …
Rural Amazon Violence Rises Amid Bureaucracy Over Land Titles
10/07/2017
For a farmer in Brazil’s Amazon, Manoel Freire Camurca was doing pretty well for himself until a local power broker burned down his house and took the surrounding fields he had poured his life into. Camurca’s eviction eight months ago happened as officials were finalizing his claim to 500 hectares of land in southwestern Amazonas …
At France’s Davos, French Bosses Laud Impact of New President
09/07/2017
Top French company bosses who have for years lamented their country’s slow pace of reforms at an annual summer gathering in Provence offered glowing praise this year for the first steps taken by newly elected President Emmanuel Macron. Sixty days after Macron became France’s youngest ever president, the CEOs gathered in the southern town of …
In India, Drug Makers Try to Stay a Step Ahead of FDA
09/07/2017
In 28 years in India’s pharmaceuticals sector, Rajiv Desai has never been busier. Most of the last six months on his desk calendar is marked green, indicating visits to the 12 plants of Lupin, India’s No. 2 drugmaker, where Desai is a senior quality control executive. Only one day is red — a day off. …
Canada’s Desjardins Suspends Lending for Energy Pipelines
09/07/2017
Canadian lender Desjardins is considering no longer funding energy pipelines, a spokesman said Saturday, citing concerns about the impact such projects may have on the environment. Desjardins, the largest association of credit unions in North America, Friday temporarily suspended lending for such projects and may make the decision permanent, spokesman Jacques Bouchard told Reuters by …
US, Russia on Collision Course in Competition for European Gas Market
08/07/2017
Visiting Poland this week, US President Donald Trump pledged to boost exports of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Central Europe, challenging Russia’s dominance of the market. Many European countries accuse Moscow of using energy as a political tool. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Warsaw, analysts say the United States and Russia are on a …
China Says Jump in North Korea Trade Just a Blip
07/07/2017
A jump in first-quarter trade between China and North Korea was “unexpected” and masks a declining trend, a state-run Chinese newspaper said Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced China’s trade with its isolated neighbor. Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40 percent in the first quarter, Trump said via Twitter Wednesday, casting …
Tesla to Install World’s Largest Battery in Australia
07/07/2017
South Australia has picked Tesla to install the world’s largest grid-scale battery, which would be paired with a wind farm provided by France’s Neoen, in a major test of the reliability of large-scale renewable energy use. South Australia, the fifth-biggest state with a population of 1.7 million, has raced ahead of the rest of the …
Infosys Plans 2,000 New Tech Jobs in North Carolina by 2021
07/07/2017
India-based Infosys, an information technology outsourcing firm, announced Thursday it will hire 2,000 workers over the next four years for a technology hub in North Carolina, the second of four planned hubs in the U.S. Infosys executives were joined by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper at a news conference in which they said the …
France Vows to End Sales of Gas, Diesel Cars by 2040
06/07/2017
France will stop selling gasoline and diesel cars by 2040. The move, announced by the country’s ecology minister Nicolas Hulot, is part of a plan to meet emissions targets set forth in the Paris climate accord. “We are announcing an end to the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040,” Hulot said, adding that …
Latvian Bank Fined Heavily Over Laundering Scheme in France
06/07/2017
A Paris court fined a Latvian bank Thursday for laundering hundreds of millions of euros through a vast scheme allowing French taxpayers to avoid paying their dues. The court fined Rietumu Banka 80 million euros ($91 million) for facilitating a scam to “democratize” tax evasion among ordinary taxpayers and small businesses in France. It also …